Google Doodle pays tribute to Dr Bhupen Hazarika

Search engine giant Google honored Dr Bhupen Hazarika on his 96th birth anniversary (8 September 1926) with a doodle on its webpage. The doodle has been created by Mumbai-based guest artist Rutuja Mali.

About Bhupen Hazarika

• Born in 1926 in Sadiya, Assam, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika is today a stalwart in the archives of India’s cultural heritage.
• He is popularly known as Sudhakantha, which means Nightingale.
• A versatile talent, he is a fine poet, musician, singer, actor, journalist, writer and filmmaker of the highest order.
• He is the only living pioneer of Assam’s film industry in the Northeast, and therefore, has been appropriately acclaimed as the uncrowned king of the cultural world of North-East India.
• He was most popular in Bengal and Bangladesh and was responsible for introducing the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi cinema.
• In 1999, he was appointed as the President of the Sangeet Natak Akademi for a period of five years by the Hon’ble President of India.
• Apart from this, he was honored with many prestigious awards like Asom Ratna in 2009 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in the same year, Padma Bhushan in 2011.
• In the year 2019, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.